Ljubljana - The Commission for the Prevention of Corruption (KPK) has found no breach of integrity in the bad bank's sale of a biogas plant in eastern Slovenia to a Hungarian group, a case into which it looked because of a potential conflict of interest of Bank Assets Management Company (BAMC) chairman Franci Matoz.

The KPK has established that the sale of the biogas plant in Dobrovnik was discussed by BAMC's six credit and investments boards between October 2020 and June 2021.

Matoz, on the other hand, joined BAMC after 20 July 2021, that is after the decision to sell the plant to Hungary's Pannonia Bio was taken.

The KPK said in a press release on Wednesday the biogas plant had been appraised in the BAMC sale procedure, all decisions had been taken unanimously, and Matoz had not taken part in the procedure.

Since the KPK cannot take positions on BAMC's business decisions as such, it has referred the case for supervision to the Finance Ministry.

Before being appointed to BAMC, Matoz, who is best known as PM Janez Janša's lawyer, sold his own biogas plant located in Vučja Vas in eastern Slovenia to the same group.

He sold it for EUR 4 million, or EUR 2 million more than he had paid for it, whereas BAMC sold the Dobrovnik plant, according to media reports, for EUR 2 million, a third of what it paid for it from the bankruptcy estate of its previous owners.

However, in a statement last month, BAMC said it had made profit in the deal, and rejected the media reports about Matoz's involvement, saying the decision on the sale had been taken before Matoz joined the BAMC board.